ROME – A 1,000-euro premium is on its way for drivers switching their Euro 0, 1 or 2 car (in other words, registered no later than 1999), for a Euro 4 or Euro 5 vehicle. They will also enjoy a three-year holiday from road tax. In addition, the current 1,500-euro bonus for green cars powered by methane, GPL, electricity or hydrogen is set to rise to 2,000 euros. The measures could be included in the “car-saver” bill to be discussed at Friday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers. Attention was focused on the bill yesterday at Palazzo Grazioli, where the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, met ministers Giulio Tremonti (economy), Claudio Scajola (industry), Maurizio Sacconi (welfare), Stefania Prestigiacomo (environment), Roberto Calderoli (reforms) and Raffaele Fitto (regional affairs), with the junior minister for the Prime Minister’s Office, Gianni Letta.

DEDUCTIONS FOR ELECTRICAL GOODS - The car-saver decree extends beyond the sector it is named after for it also includes a 20% income tax deduction for purchases of furniture and electrical goods. The tax break is thought to be linked to home renovations and to apply to white goods such as refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines. A 10,000-euro limit is likely to be imposed and the measure would probably be restricted to goods purchased in the first nine months of 2009.

SCAJOLA BACK-PEDALS – “Likely” and “probably” are the key words. Industry minister Claudio Scajola played down early reports by the ANSA press agency: “The support package for the automotive and other sectors of the economy was on the agenda today at discussions held by the prime minister, Berlusconi, with the other ministers involved, who agreed to act by decree at Friday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers. The details are currently being worked out, bearing in mind public finance restraints, the need to bolster domestic demand, encourage retail consumption and cut pollution, just as other European countries are doing. So the figures for specific measures currently being bandied about are entirely without foundation”.

ECONOMY – Yesterday morning, Silvio Berlusconi explained on Canale 5 TV that the government was on the point of launching a “substantial” aid package for the motor, components and electrical appliance industries. Mr Berlusconi stressed: “Over the next few days, we will be intervening in several strategic sectors including cars, components and also manufacturers of electrical goods that permit lower energy consumption”. The measures “will add up to a fairly substantial figure. The 40 billion euros already allocated could rise to 80 with European regional and central government funds”. The prime minister added that “the government has already done much. I recall that I was the first to tell Italians that their savings would not disappear. Then Europe stepped in and it was I who persuaded Bush and his collaborators, who had done nothing in response to the Lehmann Brothers crash, to take action and set aside more than 700 billion dollars”.

CENTO: “IT’S A RIP-OFF” – The aid package presented yesterday as support for the economy and the environment failed to convince Italy’s Greens. Former junior minister Paolo Cento called the government plan “an out and out “sÚla”, Roman slang for a “rip-off”. Mr Cento explained in a note: “If the car-saver bill is the one currently doing the rounds, what we are looking at is aid in the form of a scrapping premium but with no real change in the motor industry’s environment focus. We are light years away from the Obama plan, which includes aid for electric cars, a drastic cutback in CO2 emissions and hydrogen-related research and innovation. In contrast, the Berlusconi announcement masks the usual hand-out to the car industry, without so much as an obligation on car manufacturers to maintain existing levels of employment”.